Bang Bang You're Dead
by Pirate Monkey
Summary: In a wave of temporary insanity, Dib murders four innocent skoolmates. What happens when they come back to him and ask for answers? Inspired by a play called Bang Bang You're Dead. Happy Christmas!
1. Hatred

            **_A/N: This is a parody to a play that I love called _Bang Bang You're Dead **_by William Mastrosimone. I understand Dib may seem a bit OOC. I tried to match him with the starring role as well as I could. Some lines are from the play._****

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**_Disclaimer: I don't own Invader ZIM. Nickelodeon does. *grumbles incoherently* And Bang Bang You're Dead is owned by William Mastrosimone. I don't want to own Kya. But I guess I do, dangit! And the words written in bold and italic_**

Dib sat in his cold, hard, dark cell. He smirked, for he had just made history an hour ago. Nobody would underestimate him now, would they? No one would mock him.  No one would disrespect him. They'd all fear him now. _Man, Dib, you have it all going for you now…_

Then a noise. Dib figured it was just something outside. Footsteps. He heard footsteps. He heard footsteps in his cell! He looked around. "Who's there?!" he asked, trying to fend off whatever was there.

            "Me."

            "Me too."

            "Me three."

            "Eh…me as well."

            "Huh? Oh! ME!"

            Dib jumped. With each 'me' lit up five different faces. Five faces. Each of those he had killed. Why were they here? _Stupid, hello! These are ghosts! You believe in those, remember?_

"Why, Dib? Why did you kill me?"  
            "Why me?"

            "Why us?"

            "Why them?"

            "Why _you?_"

            Dib backed up. "Why? Because you deserved it, that's why!" He then saw the face of his own sister. Being as gothic as she was, she had definitely never looked this scary. To be honest, she looked like a demon that came straight from the fires from the deepest pits of Hell! "I _listened_ to you, Dib. I did. For 15 years, I listened to you. This is how you pay me back?" Gaz grabbed his shirt collar and glared at him. He pushed Gaz back only to bump into another victim of his. 

            This time it was Zita, the girl who had always called him crazy. She started the skool's daily mocking of him. 

            "You _did seem crazy to tell you the truth, Dib. Everyone thought so, as you have figured out. Why'd you have to kill me?" she said coldly._

            "You especially deserved it. You called me crazy! You introduced me as crazy to everyone! It's your fault!" Dib said, his face growing redder by the minute.

            "No. It's yours. You made it happen, Dib, not us!" said another. It turned out to be Keef, a red-head super annoying guy in Dib's 6th grade class. He had gotten more mature over the years, yet he still could be thoroughly annoying.

            "Pssh…" Dib said, rolling his eyes. "Well if it weren't for all of you, I wouldn't have done it now would I?"

            "You were always one for excuses, stink-beast."

            There stood Dib's enemy. Dib loved this. He had defeated ZIM. He had won. "Well, I got you didn't I? I won! Face it. You lost. You're a loser, ZIM!"

            "You call this grotesque place a win? Heh. That's pitiful, Earth boy!" ZIM snickered, coming closer. 

            "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be wherever death leads you?" Dib asked, clearly confused.

            "We are wherever death leads us," Zita explained sternly.

            "So this is where death leads you? In my jail cell?" Dib inquired, sitting on his cold and hard new bed.

"Nope." Gaz smirked. "This is going to be fun…"

"What? That doesn't make any sense!" Dib said. He threw his arms up in frustration. "Where are you, then?"

"In your humongous head, you worm!" ZIM said, stating it like it was obvious.

"I am _not schitzo!" Dib yelled. He stood up. __What the-? I can't POSSIBLY be insane…Can I?_

"You are now!" Gaz smirked, again.   
            "Well, can you leave me alone?" Dib asked. He was a little scared now. _So now I'm not just a murderer, I'm an INSANE murderer. Great. Just great. _

"Not until you tell us why."

"Why did you kill us?"

"Why did you take away all we knew and loved?"

"Why did you dispose me?"

Dib turned the other direction to keep from seeing those he killed. "Go away!" He yelled again, trying to make them disappear. He sensed this attempt would not affect them and he was correct. He turned around a few times to try to get Gaz, Zita, Keef, and ZIM to disappear but to no avail. 

"We're going to be here till you tell us why, filthy pig boy!" ZIM snarled, glaring harshly into Dib's eyes. 

"ZIM, you _know why I killed you!" Dib snapped. "Even while dead you're a moron!"_

"Whatever, Filth."

* * * *

            _"You won't get away with this ZIM! I'll get you back! I swear I will!" Dib yelled one afternoon. _

_            "I doubt that. I AM ZIM!" ZIM raised his hands up in victory before going inside his house. _

_            "Stupid alien…" Dib muttered as he walked back to his house. He kicked a Poop cola can out into a street just to see it get smashed by a car. _

_            As he walked up the path to his house, he noticed his dad's car parked in the garage. _Wow, Dad's home. That's rare… _he thought while opening the door. Inside his house were three people: His dad, a lady, and a very irritated Gaz. _

_            "Hello Son!" greeted Professor Membrane. "How was your day today?" _

_            "Uh…Dad… You NEVER ask that! What's wrong?" Dib said, staring blankly at the lady. _

_             Professor Membrane chuckled. "Don't be silly!" Then he turned to the lady. "That's Dib. He's sixteen. He's a funny one." His face flushed with embarrassment_

_"Oh I see, dear," the lady said. _

DEAR?!_ Dib panicked. "No, Dad, you couldn't of…" Dib began, but was cut off by his father._

_"Dib, this is Kya. She's my …fiancée." _

_"Great, Dad, just great!" Dib fumed. "All of a sudden you get a girlfriend, date her, then get engaged, and THEN TELL US? What kind of twisted family is this? Let me guess, you're getting married in three weeks!"_

_"Two," Kya said softly. She looked hurt._

_"I hate you…" he mumbled as he ran up the stairs. Gaz shot the two adults an evil glare and followed Dib up the stairs._

* * * *

"Why'd you kill us?" 

"Was it because of Kya?"

"Was it your dad?"

"Was it your insanity?"

"How-how do all of you know about Kya besides Gaz?" Dib stuttered. He was amazed about what his classmates knew. How did ZIM know?

"We know all about you."

"Your dreams."

"Your thoughts."

"We know it all, fool!"

"But…how?" Dib asked, trying to comprehend these beings. Gaz rolled her eyes at Dib's remark.

"We already went over this! We're in your head!" Zita explained, irritated. "We know your past. We know your present. We know your deepest, darkest secrets."

"We know everything except why you killed us," Keef said, looking angry instead of his usual blissful look.

            Dib shook his head. "But…why? Why do you have to come to me? Couldn't you have figured it out some other way? How come other murderers don't experience these kinds of things?"

            Gaz scoffed. "You just don't get it, do you?" 

            "No, I really don't…" Dib replied.

* * * *

            _"Hey, look, it's the crazy kid!"_

_            Dib ignored the words that came out of every Hi Skooler's mouth. He pressed on, thinking of what he'd like to do to those who did that to him. He smiled while planning each of their demise. _

_            Yet his sister was a different case. She had no friends, like Dib. She wasn't liked at all, like Dib. Yet anyone who made fun of or ticked Gaz off would experience horrible consequences that seemed like it came straight from Hell itself._

_            Gaz never defended Dib and Dib never defended Gaz. They both had their own problems, but Dib was the only one open enough to share his feelings with someone else. Although Dib felt Gaz ignored him, she listened. It was all that she could listen to anyhow. _

_            But Dib started talking to Gaz not only of the paranormal, but now of how cool it would be to see all who mocked him dead. The thought was quite appealing to him. _

_            "I swear, someday I'm going to teach them all, along with ZIM. I'll blow them up-" Dib spoke, but was interrupted by his sister._

_            "Blow them up? That's a REALLY good idea. What're you going to do? Stick a bomb in them?" Gaz said sarcastically. _

_            "Well, at least I'll make them go away…"_

_            **Make them go away…**_

**_            They won't condemn you anymore._**

**_            They won't be able to, now will they?_**

**_            Kill them. _**

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****_Dib grinned. Oh how great that day will be! _he___ thought as he walked along the street by his house. He opened the door to find Kya and his dad. Instead of greeting them, he walked up the stairs and ignored them. _

_            "Son, please?"_

_            He continued to ignore them along with Gaz. She glared at them for a moment before following her brother up the stairs. "I hate her!" Dib said, referring to his new step-mom. Dib refused to go to the wedding, but was forced. He sat in the back with Gaz, whom was also reluctant. Just what they needed, another parent that lacked in the 'providing attention' area. _

_            While Dib was upstairs, he planned another adventure to break into ZIM's base. He tried to sneak downstairs so his step-mom wouldn't hear him go out. Unfortunately for Dib, he was caught. _

_            "Where are you going?" asked Kya, concerned about her step-son's whereabouts._

_            "Somewhere."_

_            "At __eleven o'clock__ at night?"_

_            "I'm sixteen."_

_            "So? Your father won't be happy about this."_

_            "It's not like he cares."_

_            "Of course he does!"_

_            "Yeah, right," snapped Dib, irritated that Kya was always on his back. He opened the door._

_            "Dib, don't!" Kya pleaded. "I'll tell your father about this!"_

_            "You're not in charge of me! You're not REALLY my mom. Remember that!" And with that, Dib slammed the door._

* * * * 

**_            And that, my friends, is the end of chapter one! I'm hoping to make this a really long fanfiction. Review please. Like I said in my other fic, don't insult me randomly of how bad this fic is. Tell me what I did wrong and how I fix it. _**


	2. Resistance

            **_A/N: I made a few mistakes… First of all, I never finished my author's note… What I was going to say was that the words in italic and bold are for you to find out! Sorry about the screwy formatting as well. Also, I am sorry for this being posted so late. I blame my beta-reader! And another thing: Justin is my brother. He isn't some random guy who reviewed and tried to be funny by saying, "I love you, sis!" _**

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**_Celestial Star _****_Mali_****_: Dib's slightly OOC to match the role of the main character in the play. It's kind of hard to fuse the two characters together, since they're not alike in almost ANY way.  _**

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**_Ashsema_****_: Sorry, another mistake! I got this fanfiction mixed up with the actual play. There are only four dead people that come to visit Dib. Sorry for the confusion!_**

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**Chapter 2: Resistance**

"You hated her."

            "You wanted her to die."

            "What did she do to you?"

            "Poor, pitiful Dib."

            "She can't just intrude on my life like that!" Dib argued. "She expects to take the role of 'Mom' as soon as she marries my dad. She thinks that she can just make me forget my real mom!" 

            Gaz nodded. "I do agree with you, Dib. But why did you kill her? So far, your reasons seem stupid to me."

            "She was in the way."

            "How?"

            "She just…was, okay?"

            "Tell us why."

            Dib let out a sigh of frustration. "She was acting _way_ too protective! She kept on wanting to know where I was going."

            "Maybe because she cared?" asked Keef. 

            "Pfff… It's not like she was my mom anyway," Dib argued, trying to get them off his case.

            "She was your parental unit, if I am correct, which I am sure I am," ZIM boasted. 

            "That was an odd sentence…" Dib criticized.

            "You're getting off the subject!" Gaz said coldly. "We want answers NOW. We'll stay here until you tell us."

            "We'll torture you."

            "Tear apart your heart."

            "Pluck your eyes out."

            "We'll make you wish you were dead." 

            The word 'dead' echoed through the dark, cold, and hard jail cell. Dib jumped back. "What do you want to know?"

            Zita shook her head.

* * * *

            _Dib walked out into the cold night. He pulled his trench coat closer to himself. He headed towards ZIM's house. So many times had he wished Irkens slept! That would make his job much easier._

_            With each step, Dib held on to his video camera even tighter. He saw ZIM's base come into view as he inched closer. _

_            "Here we go, again," Dib muttered while sneaking by the security lawn gnomes. Dib had grown a lot since sixth grade, so it was difficult for him to be inconspicuous. His hair made it exceptionally difficult as well. Yet he refused to cut it, because he stated that it was his 'trademark' hair for when he became a famous paranormal investigator. Gaz snorted and rolled her eyes at this remark. Dib was a good six foot two now, being in 10th grade. Gaz, on the other hand, was five foot 5 and seemed much smaller than Dib because she slouched so much.._

_            He hid in a bush, cramping his long, slender body together as tight as he could and listened carefully._

_            "I've done it!" he heard ZIM cackle. "I've done it! Now, to unleash this plan…"_

_            Talk about good timing! Dib turned his video camera on and listened attentively._

_            "Now to fill a human's brain with…JELLY BEANS!" ZIM declared proudly._

            Jelly Beans? What the-?

            _A bucket of jelly beans poured on to Dib's head and his body (which was crammed against his head at that moment- in a most uncomfortable position, might I say). He jumped up and saw ZIM giving him that evil glare of his. "Stupid, idiotic Dib! You think that I can't tell when you are near? FOOLISHNESS! No one can fool the mightiness that is ZIM!" He proclaimed, raising his fists up in victory and closing his eyes to emphasize the words he was saying. This gave him enough time to escape. By the time ZIM stopped rambling about his supposed 'greatness', Dib was already down the street. "I'll get you someday Dib!" ZIM yelled. "Remember, I AM ZIM!"_

_            "Yeah, but I'm Dib. I'll get you before you can get me," Dib muttered._

_            When Dib finally arrived home, it was after __midnight__. Ignoring Kya's babbling of how late it was, Dib went up to his room and went to bed._

* * * *

            "You're stupid. Do you know that?" Gaz said, clearly more irritated then before. "You're not listening!"

            "Yeah, I am…" Dib replied. "You want to come get revenge for me killing you. That's what you're trying to say."

            "No, Dib!" Zita said. "We want ANSWERS. ONLY ANSWERS."

            "Answers? Okay then. I killed you because…I did," he said, rolling his eyes.

            Gaz grabbed his shirt and lifted him up. Her eyes turned red and she stared into his eyes with a deep sense of hate in her expression. "This is no TIME for you to joke around and be an idiot! We NEED the answers. We won't leave until we get them!"

            "We'll tear apart your mind."

            "Your soul as well…"

            "And we'll haunt you till your end… Wait, this IS the end for you, innit?"

            Dib shook with fear. They really WERE serious. They wanted answers, immediately. All Dib could say was: "I don't know."

            "What's not to know?" Keef asked. He was the annoyed one this time. 

            "I don't know."

            "Yes you do!" ZIM said. 

            "No, I really don't."

            "You DO, HUMAN!"

            "We know."

            "We know you know."

            "We know you know we know."

            "Okay, I'm not even going to TRY to say anything…"

            All the deceased in the room glared at ZIM. He responded with a shrug. _Once idiotic, always idiotic…___

* * * *

            _"Dib, Gaz, UP!__ UPPY UPPY UPPY! We don't wanna be late now! Come on!" yelled Kya at __six o'clock__ one Monday morning. Dib rolled over and pulled the covers over his head. Would that woman EVER shut up?_

_            "It's freakin' __SIX AM__!" yelled Gaz, who was in bed also._

_            "That leaves you one hour to get ready."_

_            "But skool starts at __seven forty- five__!"_

_            "So? Better early than late!"_

_            Dib was really starting to dislike Kya even more than before. She always woke them up at the earliest time possible. Dib and Gaz usually got up at seven and they were ready in less than twenty minutes. Dib procrastinated usually, making him late. That explained all the detentions he had received._

_            He refused to get up, along with Gaz, who was banging her head against her pillow at the time. Dib tried to ignore Kya's commands.     _

_            Yet her voice still rang through the house. Dib and Gaz finally got up a half an hour later, fussing as they did their almost normal morning routine. They insisted not to be driven to skool, amid Kya's annoying rants of how they should ride in a car instead of walking. _

_            Gaz said that she needed the exercise because she was terribly weak (which was a lie). Kya gave in, yet she also insisted Dib accompany Gaz. Dib had no problem with her decision. _

_            When they did reach skool, Dib was tripped by some popular football player. Dib ignored him and walked on amid the mocking laughs of the students. This was one of the reasons he preferred to be late. _Stupid Kya… _he thought as he trudged down the hall._

_            Yet one certain laugh did not cease. The treacherous laugh's owner still pointed. He grinned evilly. After getting hardly any sleep, being yelled at, and tripped all in one morning, Dib was furious. So, he did one thing to solve the problem: He tackled ZIM._

_            He swung his fists at the alien's face. ZIM defended himself and they both were fighting each other. _

_            Dib kicked ZIM in the legs. ZIM punched Dib's head. Yelps and yells came from the two boys, who were drawing a large crowd on the floor. _

_"HUMAN! GET OFF OF ME, YOU STINK-THING!" ZIM screamed at Dib, who was not acknowledging the alien's distress._

_Dib on the other hand was throwing in curses at ZIM he never even knew he knew. ZIM was hissing like a snake while fighting, which in Dib's opinion was seriously 'inhuman.' _

_"Excuse me." _

_            Dib and ZIM stopped fighting and looked up to see who the voice belonged to. When they saw who it was, Dib gasped._

**_A/N: Yay, a cliffhanger! This is not the end. I'll work on chapter three right away, and hopefully get the next one up sooner._**


	3. Haunted

**_So much for updating soon, eh?_****_ "Sorry everyone…again!"When reviewing, please don't swear. I don't like swearing in my reviews. Thank God I haven't had any reviews with swearing yet. Wooooooooooh! *coughs*_**

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**_ckret2-I like your random trivia! I'm very random myself, actually…_**

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**_Keeper of Memory Pepperochu-To get all the html stuff in your fanfic, you don't put the tags in your document. If you use Microsoft Word, then you type out your fanfic, add the shnazzy stuff (bold, italics, underlined words, spaces, etc.), then save it as a web page, not a document. Hope that helps! _****__**

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**_Black Silver-Well, sadly I never saw the play, but we practiced it in my Drama class last year. I wish my skool would put on Bang Bang, but this year we're doing the first _**Cheaper By the Dozen **_and I'm an understudy for a snobby teacher named Ms. Brill who is amazing close to Ms. Bitters in character!_**

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* * * *

"Why did you kill us?" asked Zita, this time more kind than before. 

"I already told you!" replied Dib. He started to feel uncomfortable. Sure, he had always believed in ghosts, but these were not ghosts. They were supposed 'illusions' of dead people he had killed. How he felt like the kid from _Sixth Sense!_

"'I don't know' is not an answer, Wormbaby. It is an excuse for telling truth that you would not prefer to say." ZIM told him. 

Dib sighed. He tried to ignore the stares from the deceased in the room, but it was quite hard to take his mind off them. They continued to keep their eyes on him, making him more uneasy as the time went by. 

"Can you leave me alone for a few minutes, so I can think about the answer?" Dib asked, using this for an excuse for them to depart from his presence.

"If we leave you alone, then you won't think about your wrong-doing. You'll try to get away with it," said Gaz.

Dib's left eye twitched. They really could see into his mind. Were they illusions? Was this some kind of nightmare? He sat on his cold bed again and looked down at the rusty floor. A wave of guilt spread through his body, but he pushed it away as quickly as it came. 

* * * *

_A lady with short brown hair stood before the two boys. ZIM forced tears and looked upset. "That insane boy with insane thoughts beat me up for no reason! He's a bad human, lock him up!" He cried. _

_ The lady looked at Dib disdainfully and shook her head. "Dib, come into my office. ZIM, go find the school nurse and get help," said the lady. _

_ ZIM obediently turned around, even though his destination was not to the skool nurse. He shot a smirk at Dib when the lady wasn't looking. Dib gritted his teeth and clenched his fists to contain his rage at the alien. He reluctantly followed the woman into her office. The label on her room door read: _**Principal**_._ _Of course, Dib had been in this room many times before for accusing students of being some type of paranormal phenomenon. He had received numerous detentions for those incidents, and he was almost always right. _

_ The principal told Dib to have a seat; He did as he was told. Dib looked at the ground and refused to look the lady in the eyes._

_ "Dib, why did you attack an innocent child?" She asked, getting straight to the point._

_ "First of all, he's not innocent," began Dib. "Second of all, he's not a child. He's a-" Dib caught himself. If he had finished his sentence, he would have gotten himself into more trouble then he already was for contradicting the principal._

_ "I am not to be corrected, for I am ALWAYS right," began the woman. "ZIM wasn't doing anything to you and you beat him up!"_

_ "Did you have any witnesses?" Dib asked. _

_ "That's not the point! I saw it!" she said. _

Man, this lady would never pass as a lawyer, _thought Dib. He decided this was going nowhere, so he found enough courage to walk out of the room, and ignore the Principal's yelling of him to come back. _

_ He sped up his pace a little bit and after he made sure the principal wasn't following, he went to his first period class to begin another dreadful skool day. _

* * * *

Dib wiped the sweat off of his forehead. Yet he was not sweating because of the heat, for it was cold and damp in his jail cell. It was his nervousness that kept him from freezing to death. 

Of course, anybody would freak out if they had the eyes of classmates and their younger sister they assassinated watching their every move, right? Though, it wasn't every day that a sixteen year old boy would kill people out of nowhere.

The dead in front of him never took their eyes off of him. They stood all around him as if they were looking into his mind. Somehow he began to feel what they were feeling. A dark emptiness gripped his soul, and it was hard for him to breathe. Everything darkened. Echoes of yells and screams bounced off the walls. His arms and legs felt limp and he dropped to the floor. He choked gripped his chest. Once he regained his strength, he gasped for air.

"This is just a taste of what we're going through because of you," Gaz's voice rang in the boy's ears. "We're plunged into this for eternity."

"And it's your entire fault," cackled ZIM cruelly. 

"No, it's not!" Dib retorted. "It's YOURS. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have killed you!"

"That's the stupidest thing I've heard in all my life!" Zita said while throwing her hands up in the air. "It was YOU who decided to do it, Dib, not us! Therefore you are responsible for your own actions!"

Dib was taken aback by this remark. He was speechless for once. He wasn't prepared to lose to them. A lot had changed in him throughout the years, yet his determination to succeed never left him. He tried to think of what to say, but couldn't find the words.

* * * *

            _After the skool-day full of Dib dodging the principal ended, he headed home with Gaz as usual. She walked beside him, eyes glued to her Game Slave V. None of them spoke for once; this was a very surprising event due to the fact that Dib usually couldn't keep his mouth shut for a minute at the least. _

_            When Dib opened the door to enter his home, Kya stood by the stairs, blocking both of them from going to their rooms which at that time was their favorite place in the house. _

_            "Dib," Kya began sternly. "Your principal called me today."_

_            Dib refused to look the woman in the eyes. He knew quite well what she was talking about._

_            "She said that you harassed a foreign green boy," said Kya. Gaz snuck behind Kya and managed to grab a soda without being seen. She walked into another room._

_            "She's lying," Dib replied. "Leave me alone."_

_            "Are you lying?" she asked suspiciously. She put her hands on her hips and was obviously irritated. _

_            "No," Dib said. "It's nothing. Move."_

_            Kya looked exhausted. She gave up on the boy and walked away. Dib went up to his room as hoped for. _Mysterious Mysteries _was cancelled two years ago, but the re-runs still lived on another channel. Dib still enjoyed the re-runs even though he had seen them all about ten times. _

_            He was really beginning to be displeased with life. He had dreamed of being someone important, someone to make a difference in the world, someone that would save humanity. He hadn't progressed much in the sixteen years of his life. What was the point of trying, anyway? ZIM wouldn't get any smarter. _

**_You can take care of that, you know._**

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_            Dib jumped. He swore he heard someone. He looked around cautiously, wondering if someone had managed to hide in his room and beat all of the high-tech security his father had installed in his home. Dib figured it was his imagination, that is, until he heard another._

**_You can make your pain disappear._**

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****_"Wh-Who's there?" Dib asked, scared out of his wits. "Show yourself!" He tried to seem confident._

**_We cannot be seen, only heard._**

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_            "Huh?" Dib shuddered. He backed up and turned around, trying to find the person (or people) who spoke to him._

**_We told you, you can't see us._**

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_            "Go away," Dib snapped, figuring that was the most powerful thing he could say at this certain situation. _

**_We can help you._**

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_            "H-how?"_

**_It's easy._**

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_            Dib figured he was dreaming. He tried the old 'let's-see-if-I'm-dreaming trick: he pinched himself. Nothing happened except a red blotch on his arm from where he pinched himself. _

**_You're not dreaming, Dib.  _**

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****_"How do you know my name?" _

**_We're in your head._**

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_            This seemed oddly familiar. Dib then remembered the whole 'Nightmare World' incident. He hadn't experienced any reality jumps, nor had he messed around with his father's equipment. _

**_End the pain right now._**

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****_"Do you mean _suicide_?" he inquired more quietly._

**_Pretty much, yes._****__**

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****_The thought had never really occurred to him before. If he did, he would end all the mocking, the laughing, and all the other pains of his life. He couldn't give in. If he did, ZIM would win. ZIM couldn't win.  _

_            Dib foolishly left the door open. He watched his sister give him a partially confused and concerned look. She shook her head and went back to rapidly pressing the buttons of her Game Slave V._


	4. Stubborn

* * * *

            "Speechless for once?" ZIM mocked. "You could always come up with something to say when I challenged you. How is this different?" 

            "Well, back then I was perfectly sane and not having conversations with dead people in my head!" Dib irritably retorted. 

            "You were never perfectly sane, Dib," Zita said. "No one is."

            "O-kay..." He said, not exactly understanding what she meant. He looked down and mumbled, "Whatever that means…"

            "You're surprisingly complicated," said Gaz. "You weren't so- well, like this before. Sure, you were always stubborn, but never so ill-mannered! What the heck has happened to you?"

            "Nothing," was the response. "Nothing."

            "It ISN'T nothing! Nothing can't change anything!" Keef raised his voice. "Something happened, and if we figure out that, it'll solve a piece of the puzzle we're looking for."

            "Why do I have to tell you? Why are you here?" Dib asked, forgetting that he already knew the answer.

            "Gosh, Dib! You're more inattentive than ZIM!" Zita shouted. The expression on her face showed that she was very perturbed. She put her hands on her slender hips.

            Gaz slapped her hand against her forehead due to stress. "If you could cooperate for just one second… Just one, then maybe we wouldn't have to terrorize you as much. You're making it harder with each sarcastic and ignorant remark! You never were one that listened, if I remember correctly. Listen, now, when it matters the most!" Now Gaz's words sounded more of a plea than a command. 

            "Okay," Dib responded more sincere. "I'll try. Talk."

            "We are here to find out why you killed us. Why did you take our lives away? Why have you been acting so strange before you murdered us? Can't you understand what you stole from us? Can't you see what MESS you've created?" Gaz explained. 

Never had Dib seen her put so much emotion in what she spoke. "What did I steal from you, then? What 'mess' did I create?"

"That is for you to find out. If we told you, well, you wouldn't understand," said Zita.

"I can understand! Wait! Let me guess. You looked into my mind and found that I can't understand on my own?" Dib asked sarcastically.

"In your language, yes," said ZIM. "Isn't that creepy?"

Dib took ZIM's last inquiry as a rhetorical question. "So, you're going to torture me until I know what I did?" 

The deceased nodded.

Dib sighed and sat on his bed. This was going to be a long night.

* * * *

_Gaz never mentioned that day when Dib was supposedly talking to himself in a way she had never heard of before. Dib was glad because it meant not having to tell anyone about his little conversations with voices that did not exist._

_He eventually found out he was suspended for the 'attacking of an innocent bystander' ordeal. He didn't mind much; he hated skool and Kya wasn't on his back as often anymore. He figured this was because she never seemed to have any affect on him attitude and decision-wise._

_ Kya secretly set up a meeting with a psychiatrist for Dib, which was what he wanted least of all. When the psychiatrist came, Dib decided to be mostly honest. It couldn't hurt, right?_

_"So, why did you attack an innocent child?" the psychiatrist asked after he and Dib were settled in another room._

_"He wasn't innocent, for the last time! He was laughing at me. He mocks me all the time." Dib explained, raising his voice with each word he spoke._

_"Ah… Why does he make fun of you?" _

_"Because…well…It's a difficult and long story. You wouldn't want to hear it."_

_"Oh, I'm interested."_

_"No, you don't want to know…"_

_"Fine, then. Have you had any type of physical or mental encouragement?"_

_"It depends on what you mean by that," Dib said, though he completely comprehended what was being spoken to him. He decided he would humor the man._

_"In simpler words, do people encourage you to act uncivilized?'' _

Uncivilized?! _"One wrong move makes me uncivilized?!" Dib shouted while waving his hands in the air. _

_"Typically, yes. If you kill one person, that still makes you a murderer, right?" responded the psychiatrist. _

_"I guess."_

_"Now that we have that cleared up, let's rewind. Are these actions encouraged by peers?" _

_Dib snorted. "I don't have any 'peers,'" he said. He crossed his arms._

_            "No wonder you're such a corrupted youth!" the man stated enthusiastically._

_            "Corrupted?  What the-"_

_            "Why don't you have friends?" the psychiatrist interrupted. _

_            "People don't believe in the same things I do. Everyone thinks I'm nuts," Dib explained, trying to be cautious of what he said._

_"What do you believe?" _

Here we go again, _thought Dib as he tried to come up with an answer that would let the psychiatrist understand that he was indeed sane. "Well," he began. "I believe that there are extra terrestrials out there. I believe that there are people or things more advanced than us out there." Dib held his breath._

_"Oh, so they think you're a 'lunatic!' Get it? Luna is like lunar, and lunar has to do with space?" The psychiatrist chuckled. He ceased and cleared his throat when he realized that Dib did not find this amusing. "I'm going to just say it straight-forward. Have you ever heard any kind of voice from within your head?"_

Great. The shrink has already come to a conclusion that I'm crazy, just like the others,_ Dib thought and silently cursed. "Sometimes." he said quietly while looking at the floor. _

_"Is it like you're hearing someone, or is it thoughts?" the psychiatrist inquired._

_"I hear people- Kids my age, mostly." Dib said cautiously._

            _"What do they say?"_

_            "Stuff."_

_            "What stuff?"_

_            Silence. _

_            Dib refused to reveal what, which made the psychiatrist very frustrated. The psychiatrist left afterwards after giving advice that Dib didn't plan on taking any time soon._

* * * *

            It was practically impossible for Dib to find peace, and this bothered him. He was growing even more tired than before. The dead around him were all wide awake. _I guess you don't sleep when you're dead-that is, when you're coming back to haunt the person who killed you._

            He wanted to sleep terribly, yet he felt uneasy about allowing the others to watch him as he slept. God knows what they could do to him in his sleep. He had to admit it; he was afraid.

            An idea lit in Dib's mind. If he fell asleep, maybe somehow they would go away. _It'll all be better tomorrow,_ he thought. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep even though it was exceptionally difficult in the conditions of his cell and of the people that were contained in it. 

            Dib saw darkness. He felt himself running through it somehow. Echoes of screams swept throughout the frigid air surrounding him. Voices of threats and commands filled the dark space. Chills ran up Dib's spine. He felt something throw him down and hold him. Dib felt aches and pains all over his body and he screamed.

            He opened his eyes to find that he was only dreaming. He rubbed his eyes. 

            "There's no way of escaping us," Zita cackled. "Wherever you are, you'll see us."

            "You'll never escape…" 

            "Ever."

            "You'll be stuck."

            "I thought you said that you'll leave if I tell you!" he reminded them.

            "Well," Gaz said. "At the pace you're going, it doesn't look like you'll come to your senses anytime soon."

            "That means we'll be staying even longer," ZIM laughed. 

            Dib did not feel ready to confess why. One of the reasons was that he did not know how he would explain the answers they were looking for. The other reason had to do with the fact that he himself did not know why either.

* * * * 

            _ZIM was overjoyed at the thought that he caused Dib much trouble. Dib learned to contain his anger towards the alien-that is, in front of any form of authority. ZIM rubbed his victory in Dib's face as much as he could during the next few weeks. ZIM made up pitiful cheers and comments that brought attention to the two boys from their skoolmates. ZIM did not care, for winning over Dib was too great for him. Yes, he had won many times before; he loved seeing Dib livid._

            _Dib did not enjoy this, of course. He repetitively said he would get ZIM back someday. He vowed that it would be a great victory: one that would steer ZIM off-course from his mission._

_            "HAH! Pitiful stink-monkey! I beat you! You're in deep dooky now! I am ZIM!" ZIM proudly announced to Dib for the hundredth time in the cafeteria at skool. _

_            "Would you SHUT UP?!" Dib asked, quite infuriated. "You know I'll get you back; I always do. You never hold your 'victories' for long, 'cause I always steal them from you! No use trying to rub it in my face now. I'll be the one rubbing it in YOUR face soon!"_

_            "Well, Dib," ZIM began. "Sorry to spoil your fun, but I ordered new security equipment that I'm going to program to blow you up whenever you get NEAR my base!"_

_            "You're going to need my DNA sample to do that. Guess what? You don't have it!" Dib announced._

_            "How do you know I DON'T have it?" ZIM asked, trying to scare Dib to some effect but to no avail. _

_            "Anyways, what if you end up blasting Gaz instead?"_

_            "That would be even-"_

_            Gaz, who was right next to Dib, growled as she played her Game Slave. Remembering what Gaz could do to him, ZIM finished his sentence in a kinder way, "-worse than you!"_

_            Dib rolled his eyes. "You're such a moron, ZIM," he said as he walked away. _

_            "Well, you're…a…corn-eater!" ZIM pathetically shot out, drawing the attention of those around him. After proclaiming he was still normal to the rest of the skool, ZIM also walked away. _

* * * *

****

****

****


	5. Helpless

**_A/N: Wow, Pirate Monkey, you sure updated soon! NOT! Sorry for such a long wait! I have my reasons on my bio, but they're not good enough. I apologize for being lazy and going on the computer when I wasn't supposed to. (That led to restriction for over a week) Finally, after two months, I finally finished the fifth chapter! Enjoy after I write a quick note to one of my reviewers._**

****

**_Ashsema: According to my beta-reader, who knows a lot about mental illnesses, Dib is suffering mostly from dementia. I did plan for him to be schizophrenic, though._**

****

****

Dib watched as those around him waited impatiently for him to break the silence. The only sounds heard were Dib's trench coat shuffling when he moved and the strong wind violently shaking the trees outside.

"I like it when you're speechless," grinned ZIM. "You don't have anything to say!"

Gaz rolled her eyes. "That's the same thing, stupid!" 

"I know that, inferior-" ZIM stopped when he noticed Gaz's threatening stance. She gave ZIM a death glare while clenching her fists tightly. She growled.

ZIM gave a nervous chuckle and stepped away from Gaz. She smirked in pleasure. ZIM cleared his throat, "As I was saying, you seem so pitiful when you have nothing to say. I win when you do that, you know!"

Dib shook his head and looked away as if he had not heard the alien's words. He sighed heavily. "No you don't," he murmured quietly, yet not soft enough to escape the deceased's ears (or antennae, for ZIM's sake).

"You do lose when you're speechless," Zita confirmed, her eyes set on watching Dib's every move. "You can't defend yourself. What if your lawyer was speechless in court? The opposing side would win, and you could even lose your life."

"They wouldn't kill me," Dib reassured himself, then became fearful. "Would they?"

"They're talking about it, you know," Keef taunted him.

"They?" Dib stood up and eyed Keef suspiciously. "Who's _they_?"

"_Them_," replied ZIM, trying to frighten Dib.

"The people that talk about the case before it's presented to court, you idiot!" Gaz informed Dib.

"Oh," Dib remembered. "They can't kill a sixteen year old! That's just…cruel…"

"You hypocrite!" Zita shouted, pointing her figure in Dib's direction. "YOU killed four teenagers from ages fifteen to sixteen! Plus, you killed your mom and dad, not to mention they were INNOCENT!"

"Step-mom," Dib corrected.

Gaz marched over to Dib angrily and slapped him in the face. Dib felt it, strangely. _Isn't that interesting? I just got injured by a dead person…_

"QUIT IT!" she roared, eyes burning with rage. "You're so focused on being right. Guess what?! You AREN'T in this case, nor will you ever be!"

Dib rubbed his cheek.

_"Have you ever noticed how people try so hard to be cool?" Dib asked Gaz while walking home one day. "They just pick on random people and try to be cooler than…than…" He paused. "...Sliced cheese!"_

_"Yeah," Gaz agreed in a low tone. "Interesting analogy you have there. Sliced cheese. That's a new one."_

_Dib glared at Gaz, who was too occupied with her Game Slave to notice. Dib was partly thankful for this, for if she had noticed, she might have given him an all out beating- if he was lucky._

**_Ignore her. You're right about those 'cool' people._**

****

_"Oh, no…" Dib mumbled quietly. "Not again." His sister eyed him suspiciously and shook her head. _

_"Maybe Kya is right," Gaz commented. "You DO need some kind of therapy."_

_"Kya's talking about putting me in therapy?!" Dib asked, once again angry. _

_"Yeah," Gaz replied casually. "She's been discussing it with Dad."_

_Dib looked down with a disappointed look. "She thinks I'm insane too, huh?"_

_"Everybody does. They always have. Plus, Kya heard you talking to the walls," Gaz explained, eyes still glued to her game._

**_You're not crazy, they are!_**

****

_Dib winced and tried to ignore the voices. "She did?" He asked. "Do you think I'm crazy?"_

_"Ever since I heard you freaking out in your room," She said._

_"Right. That." Dib remembered the incident. "I'm fine. I was just practicing for my oral report." He tried to make up a decent excuse._

_"Whatever," Gaz said, rolling her eyes. She bit her tongue as she focused on her game once again. _

_Dib said nothing more as he walked. Voices kept on echoing in his ears, though nothing could be seen._

**_You loser. _**

****

Insults now?_ "Please," he pleaded as quietly as he could. "Please stop. Not now!"_

_Gaz paused her game and looked toward him. "What now?"_

**_You're just a pathetic, little wimp. _**

****

_"No," he murmured, forgetting Gaz was at his side. "Stop."_

_"Uh, Dib?" Gaz waved her hands in front of his face. "Who are you talking to?!"_

_"No one," came the uneasy reply. _

_"O…kay…" _

**_No one cares about you. They all want you to die. _**

****

_Dib's breathing was getting heavier by the second. His head was spinning. Terrified, he tried to keep on walking. _Get in the house, Dib, _he said to himself. _You're almost there.

**_THEY'RE the ones who should die!_**

****

_The voices were sounding vengeful now. "No," he murmured again._

_Gaz jerked Dib backwards. "If you do not quit this immediately, I will surely see to putting you in one of those insane asylums!" She let him go. He staggered forward._

_"Okay," Dib tried to grasp onto reality. _What is WRONG with me?! _He wondered. _I can't be insane; I'm supposed to save the world! I'm the only one that can! If I can't, who will?

_Dib's heart was pounding. He tried his best to regain his composure and saw his house come into view. He encouraged himself to keep on going. _Almost there…

_He ran up the driveway, into the door, and up the stairs as fast as he could. He tripped over one of the stairs and fell. Quickly, he stood up and went inside his room. He slammed the door and fell on his knees. _Breathe Dib, breathe…

_He let his body drop completely on the ground. And then, darkness._

"The voices," Dib recollected. "They, they tormented me. They wanted me to go insane and kill people and myself. It's their fault!"

"Once again," Zita sighed. "No one, or in this case, no invisible head voice thingy, made you do this. It's all on your own. You keep trying to place the blame on something other than yourself! But the thing is: YOU did this, not anyone else. Others may have encouraged it, but YOU took the action. YOU killed us. Understand?"

Dib looked at the floor once again. "I guess." He rubbed his foot against the ground.

"You guess?" Gaz mocked him. "You look like a little kid avoiding to accept that what he did was wrong. Is that what you are, Dib? A little kid?"

"No," he replied.

"You sure are acting like one!" said Keef.

"From what I have observed," stated ZIM, obviously getting a kick out of tormenting his enemy. "You do remind me of those small maggots of your race."

"Do you know what you are, Dib?" asked Gaz.

"You're a murderer, Dib."

"You're a nutcase."

"You're a shame to the Earth."

"Everyone will look down on you with hate and contempt. They'll spit at the very mention of your name," said Zita as an evil grin formed on her thin, pale face.

"Everyone will be rooting for your downfall, not your succession. They'll be pleading that you'll be locked away forever," laughed ZIM.

"Our families will wish for your death. You'll experience a hate you've never felt before. Shame will haunt you day by day, as you're stuck with no life in this new, horrid life that you brought yourself into," Keef taunted.

"Everything you've wanted to do will not be achieved. Everything you've wanted to be…you'll never be that. Instead of fame and honor, you'll receive detestation and disgust," said Gaz.

"Everything you were is no more…"

**_A/N: Isn't this a nice little ending for the fifth chapter? Hopefully, I'll continue soon. First, I shall write the next chapter of Desperation, and then, write the sixth chapter of this. Have a nice day and review if you wish!_**

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	6. Denial

_"Dib?"_

_"Dib?!"_

_"DIB?! C'mon!"_

_Dib opened his eyes and saw a blob of purple, black, and white. His vision cleared and kneeling next to him was his sister. Gaz smacked Dib in the face._

_"Okay, Okay! I'm awake!" Dib exclaimed, blinking at the light. _

_"What happened?" Gaz asked. Was that a concerned look on her face?_

_"Nothing," Dib replied, though he knew very well that it was a lie. _

_The concerned look on Gaz's face vanished immediately; replacing it was a look of frustration. "You call arguing with thin air nothing?!" she exclaimed as Dib rose to his feet. "There's something wrong with you, Dib, face it."_

_"I'm fine, Gaz," Dib tried to assure her. "Trust me."_

_"Don't try to fool me!" Gaz warned him. "I know what's going on. You're hearing voices."_

_"No, I'm-"_

_"Fine!" Gaz interrupted. "Deny it, but no matter how much you say you're fine, you aren't. Kya really needs to get that psychologist back here…"_

_"Do you realize what being labeled 'insane' would do to me?" Dib asked her._

_"Uh, yeah, help you."_

_"No," he retorted. "It would ruin my future of being a professional paranormal investigator. No one will hire a lunatic! How will I get into college?" _

_"Maybe you still have a chance. If you start getting help now, you may be better in time for your career. C'mon, Dib, you're sixteen for God's sake! You've got, what, sixty-four years ahead of you? That's plenty of time to achieve what you want to."_

_"I'll be fine, Gaz, really…"_

_Gaz threw up her hands and headed towards the door. "Fine, assume what you want, but don't blame me if what you have is fatal." She slammed the door hard, leaving her brother in silence._

The words, "no more" echoed in Dib's head and hit him hard. He became overwhelmed at the fact that he would never achieve his dreams—or anything at that. He shook his head to rid himself of the thought. He won, right?

"It's amusing how you try to play the victim when we're the ones who had to pay," said Zita.

"You just _have _to win, don't you, worm monkey?" ZIM jeered.

"You're pathetic."

"Hopeless."

"Stupid."

"Pitiful."

"Why do you 'head illusions' find it entertaining to insult me?" Dib asked.

"Maybe because you're acting like such a jack-" Gaz furiously began, yet she was interrupted by ZIM's coughing fit.

"You know, with the six bullets you used to kill us, you hurt several other people, too," Keef said.

"With the bullet you killed me, you wounded my parents as well," Zita said. "You hurt my best friends, my boyfriend, and even people who weren't so kind to me."

"You hurt millions of Irkens who admired me ever so much," said ZIM arrogantly as Dib rolled his eyes. Dib knew very well that NO ONE could admire ZIM.

"You hurt the world by killing Dad, with all his inventions to help humanity," Gaz explained. "You also hurt whoever knew Kya."

"You hurt my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins," Keef said sadly.

"And you've also hurt yourself," Zita spoke up. "You've ruined your whole life."

"I still have a chance, if I get a good lawyer," Dib argued as he tried to let the painful words his victims spoke escape his head.

"You think a lawyer will help much?!" Gaz spat. "There is WAY too much proof that what you did was against the law. Murdering six people… You think that can give you a chance to return to a normal life?"

Dib realized then how slim his chances were at getting off the hook. There was practically NO chance. Dib's confidence decreased.

"There we go," ZIM said. "You're beginning to understand."

Once again, Dib had nothing to say.

_At skool, the next day, Dib found it hard to keep the voices away. He figured it was because people were making fun of him a little more than usual today. Dib hated it when people mocked him; he found himself so defenseless in that area. _

_"Hey, Dib!" Torque Smacky called out. "See any aliens? Didn't think so. Your big head is too abnormal for them!"_

_"Why don't you just die and join your ghost friends? I'm sure they'd enjoy being around you much more than we do!" Jessica, the most popular girl in skool, said with a smirk as her friends laughed._

_Then there was Zita. She always found time at the beginning of skool to call him crazy in her own little way. Laughter followed; how he hated the laughter!_

_Today, the insult from Zita was, "Watch out, I hear Dib's insanity is contagious!"_

_Dib was glad she didn't mean the actual insanity he had a chance of having. He vowed to never let that secret get out. More, hurtful insults and laughter would come if the news got out. He was actually glad to have a sister that wasn't social so there was no chance of her spreading it around. _

_And, of course, there were always the usual insults from ZIM, but Dib had gotten used to him. He could defend himself when fighting with ZIM. ZIM was an idiot, anyway. _

_"Pathetic earthling! You will never be able to stop my amazing plan! You think you can defeat me! You can't! HAH!" ZIM taunted Dib in the hallway at a passing period. _

_"Actually, ZIM, I've stopped your plans many, many times. You haven't noticed that in the past four years?" Dib informed ZIM._

_"You're LYING!" ZIM yelled, drawing attention from the students in the hallway. Dib sighed in frustration._

_"You go ahead and believe that," Dib muttered. ZIM obliviously told the rest of the skool that he was indeed a 'human worm.' _

_"Okay, I have to go or I'll be late for class again," Dib said as he headed to his next class._

_"What?" ZIM turned around. "Oh, yeah, well, you're still lying!"_

_Dib shook his head and went inside the classroom door. _

"Feeling guilty yet?" Keef asked nonchalantly.

"No," Dib said. "I guess I killed a lot more people then I expected. Cool."

"Cool?! COOL?!" Gaz's temper was getting the best of her once again. "So what you're saying is that you think killing people is enjoyably fun?! You _like _causing pain?"

"Yeah," Dib said. "I guess so."

"And just when I thought we were going somewhere…" said Zita as she paced around the cell. She crossed her arms.

"Hey, I thought you were for the good and protecting of your race!" ZIM pointed out. "I'm supposed to be the one destroying your race, but it seems as if you've joined my side."

Dib then recalled what his mission used to be: defending the world from ZIM and making sure it didn't get destroyed. He was amazed at how instantly his goal had changed from protecting the earth to getting revenge on it. Confusion found its place in Dib's head.

"See, Dib," ZIM said. "I control you now. You're just like me. I have influenced you so strongly!  Now, I can use this tactic with everyone—wait…I'm not alive. Darnit."

"No, you don't," Dib argued. "I'm not prideful and moronic like you are."

"Well," ZIM said. "You had the same goal, didn't you?"

"I didn't want to wipe out the WHOLE human race," Dib said. "Just the people who bothered me the most."

"Well, the human race bothers me the most, so we both are bent on destroying what annoys us the most. COPYCAT!" ZIM screamed. "You have a lack of originality!"

"What?" Dib exclaimed. He was annoyed at the alien's stupidity. "That's not true!"

"You're your own enemy, now," said Zita.

"You're not making any sense!" Dib threw up his hands.

"You soon will understand," Gaz said irritably.


	7. Trouble

**_Keeper: Oh, so you're not dead? YAY! I was all, "Man, everyone's leaving me on neopets…"_**

****

**_The Qing: Yes, ZIM is dead, yet I didn't technically kill him in this story. Dib did. Yes, I'm a maniac. Why? Because I can and I am._**

****

-------

_That night, Dib tried watching an exclusive interview with an old man who claimed to have seen Bigfoot rummaging through his car. The whole thing seemed so painfully phony that even the man himself looked nervous. Pictures were shown, but Dib knew "Bigfoot" was actually some guy in a brown Sasquatch costume._

_Just when the interviewer was about to comment on the phony pictures, the channel changed. "Huh?" Dib said to himself as he looked around him. Beside him was Gaz with a pizza in hand. _

_"What did you do that for?!" Dib questioned as Gaz took a bite of her pepperoni pizza. _

_"There's something I wanna watch. Go entertain yourself," Gaz said. Her eyes never left the TV screen. Dib sighed. _

_As he rose to go up to his room, he noticed Kya wasn't home. "Hey, where's Kya?" he asked Gaz, who still did not acknowledge his presence. _

_"She went with Dad somewhere. To his lab or something, I think," Gaz explained._

_"But how come she—" _

_"Shut up, Dib! I'm trying to listen!" Gaz interrupted._

_Giving up, Dib went upstairs to his room and tried to think of something to do. Once again, the voices were heard._

**_This is your chance!_**

****

_Slapping his head in annoyance, Dib started to ignore the voices, but knowing this wouldn't take him anywhere, he decided to respond. "…To what?"_

**_To scare them, to show them who's boss!_**

****

_Dib knew they meant the kids at skool. "How?" he asked them, wondering if what they would tell him was reasonable._

**_Threaten them. _**

****

_"But someone will tell somebody and I'll get in big trouble. I don't need anymore trouble in my life, okay?" Dib said, trying to act tough against the voices._

_"Dib, could you and your voices PLEASE keep it quiet? I'll hurt you if I hear one more—" Gaz shouted from downstairs._

_"Okay, I get it!" Dib yelled back. _

**_You don't have to do it straight to their face. Heck, you don't even have to let them know you're the one threatening them. _**

****

_"Okay, I'm still not getting what you're saying. Could you please leave me alone?" Dib pleaded in a whisper, careful not to disturb his short-tempered sister._

**_Don't threaten people verbally. Write something somewhere. Like graffiti, or writing it on the chalkboard._**

****

_That actually sounded like a pretty good idea to Dib. Everyone would be afraid except him! He would have control over their lives for once. He had power… Those words made him feel good, yet it also sent a shiver down his spine. _

_"Yeah, I get it now," Dib said, but the voices didn't respond. "Hmm… So if I agree with them, they go away?" The fact sounded pretty creepy, but at least Dib knew of a way to get rid of the voices temporarily._

_Dib decided he would do what the voices told him. Spraying some kind of threat on the wall sounded cool. He went to the store to buy some kind of spray paint and disguised himself to the point that no one could tell who he was, just in case someone saw him. _

_He headed downstairs and saw that Gaz was still watching her program. He walked to the door._

_"Where are you going?" Gaz asked, still not looking at him._

_"To spy on ZIM," he lied. He noticed he paused for a little bit while saying that; he hoped Gaz didn't notice._

_Too late. _

_"You're lying."_

_"Yeah, I am," he said as he quickly opened the door. Lucky for him, there, right in front of the door, stood Kya._

-------

"You dead people are confusing," Dib commented, still wondering what the heck the deceased meant. "You always talk in riddles!"

"Riddles—that's a good one," Gaz forced a chuckle, but her laughing didn't last for long. Her angry expression resumed its place. "No, you moron! You just don't want to understand what we're saying so you're off the hook!"

"You're giving us headaches, Dib!" Zita complained as she touched her forehead and massaged it.

"Do dead people even get headaches?" Dib asked, but he shut his mouth when Zita glared at him.

"Okay," Gaz took a deep breath as if to relieve stress. "Let's go back a little. Once again, do you understand what you did to us?"

"Well," Dib began. "I killed you."

Gaz growled and began to surge forward towards Dib, but Keef held her back. She struggled out of his grasp and crossed her arms. Keef shrugged innocently.

Zita tried to talk calmly. "Could you quit it with the sarcasm?" Dib was silent. He then nodded.

"You know, Dib," Gaz said, stepping closer to him. "You could have received help for your voices and learned to control them. You could have forgotten about raising your reputation and thought more about other people!"

Dib thought of many retorts at that moment, but he decided to close his mouth to spare him from more problems. He looked around at the four in front of him. Among their angry expressions, Dib could see a tint of extreme sadness upon their faces. He looked away to spare the guilt, yet it did not work so well.

"Are you beginning to see NOW?" Keef said impatiently, hoping that somehow Dib would respond.

Dib was still. The others took his speechlessness as a good omen. Each of them smiled; even Gaz smirked a little.

"Pitiful worm monkey," ZIM snickered. "No human can escape the powerful…thing…that is guilt!" Dib silently protested.

Dib started to sweat. Not only was he starting to feel guilty, but he was being beat by non-existent beings. This fact made him feel quite inferior.

Zita decided this would be the time to rub it in. "By killing us, what did you achieve?"

Dib thought for awhile, but he couldn't come up with anything. He was failing. He couldn't fail!

Keef nodded. "Right," he said angrily. "Nothing."

Gaz looked at her brother and spoke. "What did you lose?"

Dib could not count how much he had lost by what he did. The result shocked him. "Everything," he spoke quietly.

"So by murdering us and emotionally hurting those that cared about us, you gained nothing and lost everything. How was this worth it?" ZIM asked, though the prior sentence did not really apply to him at all.

"I felt powerful. I felt that I was worth something. It felt so great to see everyone who made fun of me cowering and begging for mercy," Dib admitted.

"Well, you got your ten minutes of worthiness," Keef said.

"You could have been something, Dib," Gaz explained, lacking her usual harsh tone. "You knew what you studied was real. You would have eventually found proof and you could have changed the world. You traded all that for ten minutes of being respected when you could have had years or decades! That's pretty stupid if you ask me."

"Now, all you have upon you is hatred and disapproval for the rest of your life," Zita added ruthlessly.

-------

_"Where are you going?" Kya asked_ _suspiciously. "And why are you dressed like that?"_

_"Uh, well, I…uh…"_

_"He's going scuba-diving in his friend's pool with his oceanographer friend," Gaz cut in, to Dib's surprise. "Dib and his friends are really weird. They like doing stuff like that."_

_"Oh, okay," Kya said. "Have fun, then."_

_Dib wondered why Gaz would lie for him like that. He did not care; he was just glad he was able to get out of the house. _

_Dib headed towards the skool, careful not to be seen by anyone just in case they thought he was a burglar. As he got closer to his destination, he felt nervous. He began to think that this was not a good idea after all. He stopped in his tracks._

**_Don't back out now! This is your chance!_**

****

_"But will this benefit me at all?" Dib asked the voices—or rather himself. _

**_Of course it will! Don't you want the power?_**

****

_"Yeah, but, is it worth it? What if I get caught? I don't want to go to jail!" Dib argued, making sure to be quiet in case anyone was around._

**_You won't get caught. You're a kid, so you won't go to jail._**__

_"Is sixteen considered a kid age?" Dib questioned uneasily._

**_Just shut up and do it. _**

****

_"Okay, okay!" Dib retorted as he resumed his pace. The anxiousness that had rested in his body did not depart. He reached the side wall of the skool. "Here we go," he said to himself as he began to spray paint. Since he was not used to doing graffiti, his "masterpiece" did not look very professional. Luckily, it was readable, though it was hard to tell in the dark._

_He stood back and looked at what he did. In very large, messy letters it read: _Everyone will die.

_"That should be enough to scare people," Dib muttered to himself as he left the skool. As he looked ahead, something shocked him. _

_A police car was headed down the street. _

-------

"Well, at least when I get out of prison, people will be afraid of me," Dib fought for his case.

"No, they'll hate you and make a petition to put you back in prison again. That is if you even get out. They may even give you a life sentence in prison," Keef informed Dib.

"I'll escape," Dib tried. He made an effort to sound heroic.

"Right," Zita said sarcastically. "How many jail-breaks do you hear happening?"

Dib shrugged; heck, even he doubted his own words.

"Exactly," Gaz added as she crossed her arms. "Like we said before, you killed six people for a life sentence in prison. You know it's not worth it."

"And if they find out about your voices and seeing us, they may put you in a Correctional Medical Facility. You may even need that!" ZIM snorted. He grinned at the thought.

Slowly, Dib began to realize what consequences his actions would bring. Unfortunately, this was not enough to remind Dib of what exactly he did when he killed the four in front of him. On another note, Dib felt overwhelmed by the dullness of his future. There was no way he would have a good life. No hope was left for him now.

Dib tried to be optimistic. "Well, I may make history."

"True," Gaz agreed. "But you will be notorious. Everyone will spit at the sound of your name. They'll throw trash at your tombstone."

"Well, still," Dib offered uneasily.

Zita shook her head. "You are so pathetic."

"As if I haven't heard that a million times," Dib rolled his eyes. "You people and your insults."

"Well, you and your…killing…stuff…" ZIM said unsurely. Dib ignored him.

"Well, maybe if everyone had been a little nicer, I wouldn't have tried to murder you."

"Maybe, this, maybe, that!" Gaz mocked him. "Well, maybe if you had stopped imagining what could have happened, then MAYBE you would have taken control of your 'rabid' self."

"Rabid? What—"

"Shut up!" Zita yelled. She threw her hands out. "God, you're annoying!"

"Like THAT'S new news," Gaz criticized as the two girls glowered at each other.

"We will make you tell us why…"

"We will make you afraid."

"We will make you cower."

"We will make you regret your preposterous actions."

****


	8. Worry

A/N: w00t: Really? I've always wanted to perform in it, but I don't know where I could do so. I practiced "Bang Bang" in Drama class.

-------

_Dib held his breath and jumped behind a bush. He crouched down as low as he could and wished with all his might that his tall hair did not show behind the foliage. As he closed his eyes, he heard the car zoom past the skool building. He waited until the noise was far gone before rising to go home. _

**_Now how did that feel?_**

****

_Dib scoffed. "Uh, good, I guess?" He offered, knowing the voices would retort._

**_You guess? Do you understand what you have just opened yourself up to, boy?_**

****

_"Yeah. Some kind of respect thing," he said. The idea had started to sound lame._

**_Do you understand that tomorrow, everyone will be too frightened to even make fun of you? But you won't be scared. They're the only ones that are going to get tormented. Not you._**

****

_What the voices said started to make sense. As Dib continued to walk, he thought over the pros and cons. _

_But when he returned home and fell asleep, he had never thought about the cons._

_The next day, when Dib arrived at skool, he was surprised at what he saw. He saw all the girls huddled up in a circle and looking extremely disturbed. As he passed them, he was able to catch a piece of their conversation._

_"Did you see it?"_

_"God, I'm scared."_

_"You don't think whoever did that was serious, do you?"_

_"Don't worry about it. It was probably some dork wanting attention."_

_Dib walked to his locker and saw the boys that often beat him up. _

_"Man, they're not serious are they?"_

_"No, stupid, they can't be. It's just some prank."_

_"No one with _that_ bad of a graffiti skill could be _that_ serious."_

_Dib couldn't help but smile. Everyone was talking about what he did, and they didn't even know it. Boy, if they found out, they would feel so stupid. After all, they figured that Dib was too weak to do anything dangerous. _

_This thought was slightly discouraging, but Dib shook the feeling off._

_As he went into first period and took his seat, his teacher wore a worried expression on her face. "Class, you all have probably heard about the graffiti on the front of the skool. Well, because of this, the principal has called a special assembly after lunch. Please report to the gym."_

Assembly? _Dib thought. _What I did was scary enough to call an assembly? _He never really thought his messily sprayed "Everyone Will Die" would be THAT intimidating. Was it really that serious?_

**_How does it feel?_**

****

In class, now? _Dib sighed as he ignored them. He couldn't talk to the voices, or else he would be dubbed crazy for eternity. _No, not now! _He thought, trying to communicate with the voices telekinetically. _

**_Why not?_**

****

If I say something, then EVERYONE will—

**_Forget about "everyone." Who cares about what everyone thinks?_**

****

Well, if they heard me talking to you, then they'd send me to that "Crazy House for Boys" place, again. I don't want to go there.

**_Whatever._**

****

_Dib tried to focus on his class. What exactly were they going to say at the assembly? Did they know he did it? He began to sweat. _

_Lunch had passed very slowly to anxious Dib. As he nervously walked towards the door to the gym, someone jerked him to the side. He let out a yelp of surprise._

_It was Gaz._

_"What are you—"_

_She pushed him against a wall. "Shut up. I know you did it." She released her grasp and glared at him._

_"Did what?"_

_"Pfft…" She spat. "Don't play stupid. You sprayed that lame excuse for vandalism on the wall, didn't you?"_

_Dib stared blankly at her. He didn't know what to say. "Uh…"_

_Gaz put her hands on her hips. "Seriously, Dib. I lied for you for THAT?" Dib just stood there silently. _

_"Why the heck did you do it anyway? Was it your 'voices?'?" She mocked him. _

_"Yes," Dib said quietly, making sure no one was around. "They told me to."_

_Gaz slapped her head. "Dib, you're insane," she said coldly. "FACE IT." She let him be and walked into the gym. Dib followed her example a few seconds later.  
  
_

_Inside, all the students were squeezed in next to each other. Dib took a random seat and sat down._

_"Do you know who did it?" A kid next to Dib asked. Dib shook his head. _

_"I know that this might sound stupid," the boy continued. "But I'm kind of freaked out. I'm not like, paranoid scared or anything." Dib nodded. It was as if everything tried to get him stressed out!_

_"Attention, please. Quiet down!" instructed the principal. Everyone silenced, eager to hear any further news. _

_"As you all have heard, someone has recklessly sprayed some kind of message on the front of the skool's walls. Do not fret, for the culprit is probably some supposed "invisible" child wanting someone to pay attention to him or her. Everything is under control." _

Why do people say that I want attention?_ Dib quietly asked himself. For some reason, Dib felt that all eyes were on him, that all of them knew that he was the perpetrator. The principal even seemed to look him straight in the eye. _

_"I am convinced that one of you in this very building has committed this appalling crime." The students frantically looked around and began to engage in conversation. The principal shushed them. "Which ever one of you has done this may come into my office. Your punishment will be lighter than if you do not confess at all."_

_Dib gulped. Boy, was he in trouble…_

-------

"Why do you talk like that anyway?" Dib asked, as the four groaned.

"You stupid worm monkey," ZIM scolded. "You do not understand. No matter what you do or say, we will eventually win. There is no opportunity for you to get out of this situation without being punished horribly. Your idiotic back talks mean _nothing._"

"It's true," Keef agreed. "You can't win."

Silence.

"Do you understand that instead of benefiting the world, like you have always dreamed of, you have instead made it more paranoid of things it did not need to be afraid of in the first place?" Gaz asked him, trying to keep calm.

"Well, it does need to be more cautious, but I guess I haven't really thought about that," Dib answered sincerely. A look of surprise crossed all of the deceased's faces.

"Wow, he answered genuinely! I can hear the Hallelujah chorus!" Zita exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.

"Really? I can't," ZIM stated obliviously, perking his antennae.

"It's a figure of speech, moron," Gaz informed ZIM. His eyes widened with realization.

"I knew that!"

"Anyway," Gaz persisted. "Think about it. You will never ever become a paranormal investigator. You will never ever let the world see the truth. Your idiocy has blocked any chance of the world seeing what is really out there. All your little Eyeball friends will never get the respect they deserve."

"You think they deserve respect?" Dib inquired, astonished.

"Of course I do! Yeah, I've never showed it. Still, they work their butts off for the good of humanity. And trust me, this world needs some good," Gaz admitted sullenly.

"True," Dib agreed. He tried his best to be serious; he was starting to get the point. "Just to let you know, that last sentence needs grammar help."

Gaz rolled her eyes. "You don't need grammar when you're dead."

"Right," Dib assumed.

-------

_After the assembly, Dib scurried to his next class. Before he could reach the door, someone had called his name. He turned to see who had spoken. It was the principal. Dib sighed in annoyance. He did NOT want to deal with that woman._

_"Yes?" He said innocently._

_The lady glared at him. "Come into my office." She turned to walk away._

_"Yes Ma'am," Dib murmured. He cautiously followed the principal into her office. _

_After they had taken their seats, the principal began her accusations. "I know it was you."_

_Dib pretended to look clueless, yet his heart was pounding. "Huh? What do you mean?"_

_"You know what I mean," the woman snapped. "YOU sprayed that horrid message on the wall."_

_"No, I didn't!" Dib lied. "Why would _I _do that?"_

_"Well, after that outrageous fight you started with that nice green boy, you seem like a criminal."_

_"I did NOT start that fight. ZIM did, and he's not nice!" Dib nearly shouted. "Besides, Torque Smacky is more likely to do graffiti than me." _

_"Don't you dare gossip about Smacky. He is a really kind, quiet gentleman," the principal stated. Dib almost laughed. _

_Torque Smacky was definitely not kind or quiet. He was one of the popular jocks that snagged every girl he could. He was also known for beating up all the wimps and dorks, such as Dib._

_"Whatever."_

_"Don't you use that tone with me!" the lady warned him. _

_"Sorry," he said insincerely. He wished to leave the room._

_"You can be dismissed to your next class, now, but don't forget: I'm watching you," the principal glared at him._

_"O-kay," Dib said as he left the room._

-------

"If you haven't realized it already, your future is destroyed. There is absolutely no way to regain it. It's all because of your stupidity," Keef reminded Dib.

"Yeah, I got that," Dib said, with a tint of fatigue in his voice.

"Now let's move on to the other issues," Zita said as Dib groaned. "By doing this, you have created a fear in many families. Parents are going to fear for their children's safety while being educated. Because of you, some people who go to our skool will be afraid of learning. Even if they aren't, they will still be haunted by the scene you created."

"By your destruction of six people, you also destroyed our skoolmates' spirits. Their minds will be filled with what you did over and over and over again for months," Keef told him.

"Do you understand that?" Gaz asked. Dib nodded.

"Just to let you know, my best friend, who had a lot of trouble going on in her life, is going to commit suicide tomorrow, and it's all your fault." Zita said bitterly, rage forming in her brown eyes.

Dib was shocked. "Really?"

"Yes, really," Gaz said, irritated. "But that shouldn't bother you, because you like it when people die."

"No," Dib argued.

"Then why the heck did you murder us? Why are you trying to defend yourself so much?" Zita angrily questioned him.

Dib thought for awhile and he began to feel very confused.

A/N: Yes, that is the end of the chapter. Review if you wish!


	9. Changes

A/N: Sorry for not updating soon! I had severe writer's block. A writer, real-life friend of mine helped me out with an idea, so all of you thank him. He doesn't write fanfiction, so just say thank you to Richie in your reviews, and I'm sure he'll be just fine.

To avoid further confusion, this chapter will be slightly different from the past eight. The parts that describe the past (the words in italic) will be told from Gaz's point of view. Sorry if you don't like it that way; it will most probably be back to normal next time I update.

Oh, yeah, and Happy Christmas.

* * *

"_Clutching my cure, I tightly lock the door. I try to catch my breath again. I hurt mu--"_

_SLAM!_

_I smacked my annoying alarm clock off and rolled over. I was not going to get up today. _

_Why?_

_Because I simply did not feel like it._

_I closed my eyes and started to go back to sleep. _

"_GAZ! GET UP!"_

_I groaned and pulled the pillow over my head. I was NOT going to get up. No one was going to make me, anyway—_

"_GAZ! You're going to be late!"_

"_SO?!" was my muffled reply. "No one cares!"_

"_I do!"_

_Against my will, I exhaustedly placed my two feet on the ground and forced myself to get ready. As I reluctantly made my way to the bathroom, I noticed something._

_There was no annoying deep voice ranting on and on about stupid nonexistent figures. There was no one hogging the bathroom. There was no one telling me to move out of the way so I would snap back angrily at him._

_Dib was missing. _

"_Dib?" I called out, trying to sound somewhat bitter. _

_No response._

"_I swear, Dib, if you don't come here, I am going to—"_

"_No use doing that, Gaz," Kya said to me. "He's not here."_

"_Where the heck is he then?" I asked, staring intensely at her. _

_Kya narrowed her eyes. "I'll only tell you if you stop acting like that to me."_

"_Well, I don't need to know, then," I told her, irritated, and with no will to be near her._

_She shook her head. I ignored her and trudged toward the door. _

"_Gaz, it's too cold to walk to skool today, plus—"_

_SLAM!_

_I shut the door and hurried around the corner so Kya would not bother me any longer. I swear that woman drove me crazy. If there was only one person in the world that I would have wanted to go away forever and never return, it would have been her._

_As I walked down the street alone, I was disturbed by the quietness around me. I was not used to this at all. On normal occasions, Dib would go on and on about useless crap that I did not care about._

_I folded my arms across my chest and continued to walk. I lowered my head, as usual, because I hate making eye contact with people, unless, of course, I am trying to freak them out. _

_I ignored the early joggers, and the barking dogs that follow them on their leashes. I did not look at the elementary skool kids, who were chasing each other around on the sidewalk, and into the street. _

_As I strolled down the familiar pathway, the joggers, dogs, and children were no where in sight, thank God. They were all walking the opposite direction, so I would not have to deal with them twice in one walk._

_Then I heard something. It sounded like some kind of ranting. I came to a halt and listened. _

_Sure enough, someone was talking. The strange thing was that there was only one voice. _Could be because of a phone, I guess, _I thought, still standing there._

_Normally, I would have continued on my way. I would have not regretted walking away. For some reason, curiosity took over, so I silently crept towards the noise._

"…_go…reasonable…come on…" It was all I could catch of the voice, so I headed closer._

"_I have to go to skool. Leave me alone while I'm there, okay?!"_

_I stopped, realizing who it was._

_It was Dib again, with his creepy voices. Rolling my eyes and sighing with frustration, I ventured towards his voice quickly. _

_I saw him come into view, as I crept quietly towards him. I saw him sigh and wipe the sweat off his face. _

_Dib was REALLY insane. _

_Heck, I never seriously thought he was crazy. I just said things like that to make fun of him. But this…this was for REAL. _

_I trudged toward unsuspecting Dib and slapped him in the shoulder. He yelled in surprise, and then quieted when he saw I was the one who hit him._

"_What are--?"_

"_Shh!" I interrupted him, and then whispered, "What the heck are you doing here?"_

_Dib offered no response, but instead laughed nervously. I shook my head._

"_I'm not going to say it again Dib," I began spitefully. "YOU…NEED…HELP." Not caring, I resumed on the path to skool as Dib stumbled behind me. _

"_I'm fine. I don't need help," Dib stated, like it was obvious. I grumbled under my breath._

"_Hah. Very funny," I said sarcastically. "You're pretty stupid if you won't admit that you're crazy."_

_Dib glared at me and I ignored him. "Well, you're pretty stupid to get into my business," he replied._

_I almost stopped in surprise. Dib NEVER talked back to me. Usually, he would have quieted himself and continued on his way. _

_Apparently, this wasn't a normal circumstance._

_To try to put him back into his place, I shoved him into a pole. I started to resume walking, but I felt hands grab me and push me against that same pole. _

_It was Dib._

"_What the--?"_

_My voice was cut off by his hands encircling my neck and practically squeezing it. I had never choked him this hard in my life. I tried to loosen his hands off of my neck, but as I tried, I noticed something. _

_Dib was not himself. Instead of that supposed "savior of Earth" he had named himself, he had this evil, threatening look in his eyes. To be honest, it scared me a little. Just a little, though, nothing more. _

_As a few seconds went by I noticed the importance of air. I tried to tell Dib to let go, but he wouldn't. Out of desperation, I kicked him as hard as I could in the leg. He let go, allowing me to gasp for air and run away. He cursed and held onto his bruised leg. _

_Did my brother try to choke me? I shuddered, wondering what would have happened to me if he held on longer._

_As I ran into the skool, shocked and disturbed, I decided to leave Dib alone. _

_When lunch came around, I sat down in my usual spot, and Dib sat next to me. Both of us acted like nothing had happened. I didn't look at him, as usual. He didn't speak, which was unusual. _

_After skool, I headed home without him and turned on the television. I was grateful Kya wasn't home. I didn't need her to bug me today. After about fifteen minutes of flipping through the channels, Kya came home and insisted on watching Dr. Phil. I rolled my eyes and headed up the stairs to play Vampire Piggy Hunter III. That game always made me feel good, for some reason. I liked killing all of those vampire piggies. It took my mind off of everything. _

_I heard Dib come home, along with his boots stomping on the stairs. Then I heard Kya say something about how he should watch this special episode in which Dr. Phil is helping out corrupted teenagers. I heard Dib groan. _

_While playing the game I had beaten fifteen times, I began to think about who Dib really was now compared to when he was twelve. _

_In four years he had changed from an alien-hunter to a revenge-seeker. Every day he seemed to be growing apart from his paranormal interests. Now his life seemed to be ruled by hate._

_He was becoming worse than me. Of course, I hated people, but I never did anything about it. Now he seemed more evil than so-called "bad." _

_I let it slip my mind. He couldn't do anything REALLY dangerous. He's Dib, the pathetic wimp of the family. _

…_right?_

A/N: End of chapter. Yay. Wasn't this just screaming seasonal?

Just in case you didn't know, the lyrics coming out of Gaz's alarm clock radio were from Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit." I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Review if you wish!


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